I went into Katiet in the early afternoon and have a look around. I was shocked to walk into an almost abandon town. This is a picture of the old main street of the town.
Apparently the government and some human rights groups had been working together to relocate the people of Katiet. The government wanted them off the beach and the human rights folks wanted to help by building homes elsewhere. There are still a handful of villagers living there among abandon buildings and two churches.
They have a simple existence fishing and harvesting coconuts. I found a smoke shack where they burn the husks off and the coconut milk picks up a bit of the smoked flavor and take them by boat to Padang for market.
Some of the other locals make carvings; paddles, boxes, bowls, wooden turtle jewelry boxes, small surfboard platters, and a stack of other objects. Most everything carved has Mentawai written either as a feature or underneath. Others sell large beautiful polished shells. The artists put their wares in a carved out canoe and come to the surf charter boats and kind of hang out.
When schools out, kids come out in canoes or smaller surf boards and play around.
The town of Katiet has a bit of a malaria problem I’m told, but then again so do lots of places out here. The one place I know is putting a conscious effort in keeping it off their island is the Tagot Nusa Retreat on the beach at scarecrows surf break. http://www.tagotnusaretreat.com/
With a day off the beach of King Fisher Resort surfing a right at Bintangs and a left at Lance’s left, both within a skiff ride to the shoulder of the break. We were distracted for awhile by a British surfing mermaid with exceptional muscle tone; (Nudge-nudge-wink-wink).
I want to take this time to show you a picture of the crew of the Nusantara Surf Charter crew. These guys did everything in their power to make our trip a success and they accomplished their goal.
http://www.davidcdagley.com
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